Crafting a Future of Wellness with Dr. Scott Fried's Holistic Strategies

Change is the only constant, so they say, and we're here to show you how to harness its power for your benefit. Dr. Scott Fried, a surgeon who champions self-healing, walks us through the landscape of change, revealing the resilience needed to thrive in the evolving arenas of work and well-being. With anecdotes from my journey in financial planning and insights from Dr. Fried's experiences, we paint a vivid picture of how change, rather than being a foe, can be the very ally that propels you towards personal growth and success.

As we pivot to the health sector, we confront its current tribulations head-on, discussing bankruptcies, doctor shortages, and the often-misguided perceptions of aging and wellness. This episode is full of transformative perspectives, including the potential of conservative care, the power of educated self-care, and the fusion of lifestyle modifications with holistic and conventional medicine. A personal episode led to the inception of a revolutionary medical device, illustrating the profound impact of change when met with innovation and partnership. Listen as we bring to light the strength that lies in adaptive strategies, and the collective benefits of efficiency and adaptability in healthcare and beyond. Join us on this eye-opening journey where the readiness for change equates to a readiness for a healthier, more vibrant life.

About Dr. Scott Fried:
Dr. Scott Fried is the President of Doctor in the House and Chief Surgeon at The Upper Extremity Institute. He is a surgeon whose mission is to put himself out of business by helping people to heal themselves. He has come to understand that the medical system is not perfect and there are easy steps all of us can take to avoid becoming victims of the system. He learned from his father, a clinical psychologist, that healing occurs in the mind. With small lifestyle changes and use of medical devices he’s developed, they’ve helped thousands of people to heal themselves and live happier and healthier lives.

Connect with Dr. Fried:
Website docinthehouse.com
nervepain.com
LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/doctorinthehouse
Facebook facebook.com/DoctorintheHouse
YouTube youtube.com/@doctorinthehousewithdrscot8589

This episode is brought to you by Doctor in the House, Doctor Developed Products Helping People Heal Themselves. Go to docinthehouse.com to learn more.

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Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Entrepreneur, author and financial consultant, Marc Bernstein helps high-performing entrepreneurial business owners create a vision for the future and follow through on their goals and intentions. Ang Onorato is a business growth strategist who blend psychology and business together to create conscious leaders and business owners who impact the world. Founders Forum is a radio show podcast sharing the real stories behind entrepreneurship as founders discover more about themselves, while providing valuable lessons and some fun and entertainment for you. Now here's Marc and Ang.

Marc Bernstein: 0:36

Good morning America. How are ya? Good morning Arlo. Good morning Ang. Good morning Dr Scott Fried.

Marc Bernstein: 0:44

By the way, we're on Zoom today, and that was really weird because I don't know about you guys, but I couldn't hear my music at the beginning. We could only hear the voices, so it was a little strange coming in without the lead in music. Beautiful day here, a cold day in Philadelphia. Hopefully it's nice wherever you are listening to this podcast and we're on the radio on WWDBAM in Philadelphia.

Marc Bernstein: 1:09

Our topic for today is going to be change, because I've noticed and we've been talking a lot about the shift that's going on in the world amongst all the horrible news that we hear every day, but I just started thinking about what it takes to change, as things are changing around us, and I know that impacts me on a daily basis. We've talked a lot about resilience, and we talked about the fact that it used to be resilience was something you used to have to call on every once in a while. Now it seems like you have to be resilient every day, and so that means we constantly have to be changing as well. And, anne, I'd like to get your thoughts on that first.

Ang Onorato: 1:51

Yeah, well, we were chatting offline and I think it's a necessary skill set to have, but in 2023, just like the last two years, three years have been nothing if not filled with change. So, on a global basis, on a business perspective and really, I think, down to the individual level, we talk about the fact that many of us that have been doing personal development growth journeys have already been keyed in the fact that you do have to be resilient and be ready for change, and now I think that message is permeating far and wide. So definitely a good topic and a good time of the year to pay attention to. What is it that we need to do to build those skills and be ready for what's next?

Marc Bernstein: 2:37

I know in my business which I've been in my financial planning business over just about 40 years now that I've had to constantly change, because tax laws change all kinds of things, but also environment, working culture, which you like to talk about, and business culture has changed. So I had to change the way I operate within my business, with our staff, with my partners, and I've done a lot of work on myself to sort of keep up and stay ahead. Developmental work, which we've talked about before, internal changes as well as external, the obvious things, just work habits and things like that. Certainly, doing business on Zoom, we're in our second pandemic in the business right now because our office is under construction, so since for the last two and a half months we're working remotely again. So fortunately we've had experience with that, but even this time is a little different than the last time. So there's all those things. Dr Scott Fried, how about you? How do you react with change?

Dr. Scott Fried: 3:32

I think change is healthy. I embrace change and in fact, it's something that's inevitable in all of our lives. Every day, every moment, the world changes and our worlds change according to where we are, what we're doing, what we're exposed to, and change brings about that low level of stress to us which is the key to us actually improving our lives. It actually stimulates us to move forward. So, change within reason. Of course, the dramatic changes are always tougher, but change within reason is an expectation, and I think it's the part of living that brings excitement to my life, rather than the other way around. Otherwise, I would just sit and do exactly the same thing every single day.

Marc Bernstein: 4:28

That's great, I am very well said. First of all, and I would agree with you, I have learned to embrace it. I will tell you, it was not always that easy for me to embrace quick change, but I think I've become somewhat expert at it these days because we have to.

Marc Bernstein: 4:44

I would say you have. Well, I appreciate that, so I do need to disclose. Dr Scott Fried is a friend of mine and he's often called Dr Scott, but I'm going to call him Scott because that's what I call him. You can call him Dr Scott, he said. He says you can call him anything that his wife, laura, who we're going to talk about, has trained him well on that. The answer is almost anything, and so let me tell you about him.

Marc Bernstein: 5:10

He is the chief surgeon and founder at the Upper Extremity Institute in Bluebell, pennsylvania, and he's also president of Dr in the House, which is going to, which is a little more interesting, and we'll get to talk about that. And I'm just going to tell you one sentence about Scott, and the rest of it's going to be told in this story. He's a surgeon whose mission is to put himself out of business by helping people to heal themselves, and me, as a patient who I've seen him before, I can attest that to be true. He's a surgeon who's the last guy to recommend surgery. So I know there's a story behind that, scott, with your father and some health issues he had and how you were influenced to go in that direction. Would you mind telling us about that?

Dr. Scott Fried: 5:54

Not at all, Marc. Thanks, I think you healed yourself, by the way.

Marc Bernstein: 6:01

I agree with coaching.

Dr. Scott Fried: 6:06

Basically my child. It was interesting. My dad was a clinical psychologist and spent a lot of his work teaching people relaxation hypnosis techniques as well. He unfortunately had five heart attacks and bypass surgery by the time he was 52 years old. The bypass surgery further failed miserably. In fact, when I was a resident I reviewed his catheterization tapes the tapes which showed the blood vessels after the surgery and he literally had no blood vessels in his heart. None of the original blood vessels existed anymore. They were all closed off. He had very thin collateral or extra vessels that had grown in the heart, which our hearts will do.

Dr. Scott Fried: 7:00

Dad lived 24 years after that unsuccessful bypass surgery, living a normal life. He worked three jobs. He raised a family. We had a great life. Up until the last year of his life no one would ever have known he was sick. He had limitations and he had pain every day. He was an unbelievable man. I came to understand that he did that by kind of sitting on the couch every afternoon for 20 minutes and closing his eyes. He would visualize himself healthy and visualize growing new vessels in his heart. And he actually did. He was an amazing man.

Dr. Scott Fried: 7:48

I decided early in my life I didn't particularly want to have the five heart attacks and the surgery. Perhaps that's the reason I ended up a surgeon, but I didn't trust the medical system too much. I came to trust the fact that we can heal ourselves and take care of ourselves. He taught me the techniques that he had learned. He was a pilot in the war in Burma. He brought back these techniques, these relaxation, meditation techniques, which were the basis of my understanding that we can heal ourselves and we are in control of our worlds and our lives and our bodies, as well as our healing. As long as we embrace that and understand that, we become much better able to take care of ourselves.

Dr. Scott Fried: 8:40

The sidebar is to that we have much happier lives. I meditate every day and I teach my patients. I put patients under hypnosis and do surgery on them and they need minimal medication. They wake from their surgery and the worst thing they say is I have to pee. It's a marvelous thing to watch and to experience. The experiences that patients have in learning. Taking care of themselves and I've done this thousands of times is miraculous to watch.

Marc Bernstein: 9:17

You know I'm a meditator twice daily as well. Just to testify to this. I know you know the works of Dr John Sorno and you know my wife, susan. Yes, she's had a lot of back pain over the last year. That came from nowhere I knew, not because I'm a genius, but because I'm on the outside. Her mother also passed away in the last year and she had enormous stress with that. I knew that her mother's health issues and the stress she went through caring for her and everything else were connected to that back pain. But she couldn't see that. She went to doctors, she did all kinds of things. She's now going to acupuncture, which is helping, but finally I was able to get into the conversation. She got well enough that she was able to hear when I talked to her about Dr John Sorno. She's reading his book now and she's starting to do the things and immediately she's feeling better already. Now she finally believes that she can heal herself. So I am so.

Dr. Scott Fried: 10:12

Marc, you're a healer and your wife, we know, is a healer.

Marc Bernstein: 10:15

Right, she is in another way Correct, yes, so anyway. So that's so I can testify that, scott, in building your practice, I know that everybody every entrepreneur has obstacles. Our show's about entrepreneurs and founders of businesses, and I know you run into trouble along the way and also know that you have certain characteristics of strength that have helped you deal with them. Could you give an example of obstacles you've had and how you've had to overcome them?

Dr. Scott Fried: 10:50

Yeah, I well just picture a surgeon trying to convince other surgeons that surgery isn't the way to go and then further telling them that.

Dr. Scott Fried: 11:03

I had a feeling you might say that, by the way, that's what we're gonna go with this, yeah and try doing a national meeting where you're telling a group of World-class, seasoned surgeons that, oh, they should teach their patients to meditate. Yeah, obstacles being different, I started early in my practice and you know, in your residency you're trained to do surgery, to do be a great technician, to take care of people, identify the problem and fix it with surgery and and, yeah, we would operate on patients and then see them maybe once After the operation and then never see them again. When I went into practice I started I'm a orthopedic surgeon by training in my sub specialties upper extremity surgery, hand to neck and fingertips down, but but problems like carpal tunnel and things like that and I began I follow my patients for a long time. After I operate on them they become my friends and and they tell me things I sometimes don't want to hear, just like my wife.

Dr. Scott Fried: 12:15

But, they make me a better person. And and what I found was that over the course of time, many of the patients I operated on Were initially better, but then they kind of just didn't maintain that betterness. They weren't as good. My thought for a long time, maybe I'm not that good surgeon. And then I would go to national meetings and talk about this with people and they'd say you know, well, you're, you're not doing it right, we don't have those results. And then when I dug deeper, I found that nobody followed their patients as we weren't trained that way, and and they came to understand that well, surgery doesn't always work and a lot of other things work, as you found with Susan. You know that there's lots of ways to skin a cat back pain, arm pain, nerve pain, many of these diseases that we all face cancer. In healing cancer, Interesting we have.

Marc Bernstein: 13:16

Do you have a quick question?

Ang Onorato: 13:17

and because we have a break in about a minute and a half, yeah, so we're gonna take a break here, but this is so fascinating and I'll just kind of lob the topic out. We'll take a break and maybe come back with this. But you know, really would love to talk a little bit about your thoughts on the future of medicine, and with the caveat that I understand completely where you're trying to disrupt the way things have been taught. I had that same experience in my clinical psychology training, where Anything around self healing or self leadership is wasn't even in our textbooks, right so and and how impactful that is. So we'll take a break and we come back. Would love to kind of start there and Get your thoughts on that.

Marc Bernstein: 13:58

I think you'll enjoy this commercial by doctor in the house and we'll be back in a minute.

Announcer: 14:04

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Ang Onorato: 15:15

We are back on founders forum, so and before the break I had lobbed out the concept of you know, the idea that you have taken this role to sort of, you know, educate and kind of disrupt the way that may be medical education or the way that surgeons and doctors have been trained, and so I'm kind of curious. You know, you give us a background of why the self healing is important to you and maybe where that came from on a personal level. But how do you tie that in today with where you see the medical industry, if you will right, in the future? Do you see more doctors or Medical schools trying to incorporate more of the self healing? I mean, the body keeps the score as a bestseller for a reason, right. So I'm really curious about your thoughts on that.

Dr. Scott Fried: 15:57

Yeah, it's a great question and we started out talking about change and, you know, one of the things that changing rapidly in this country is is the medical system. It's bankrupt and there's not enough money to take care of people, there's not enough doctors to take care of people, and and people have real challenges medically. And the One of the big myths in this world is that we have to age ungraceful. You know aging. Basically, I've searched the literature. There's nothing that proves our bodies age and break down. But the medical system is the biggest business in this country and so, you know, we do things to people instead of teaching people to take care of themselves. So the change in the system has brought about a need for better ways for people to take care of themselves and use the medical system for the things that they can't.

Dr. Scott Fried: 17:02

Yeah, you break your leg, you break your femur in half and it's facing sideways. You need surgery. Okay, we've got that. But on the other hand, you have back pain and Radiating leg pain. Okay, yeah, you may. You may have a herniated disc or you may have an irritation, and in most cases, we find that conservative care does just as well as operations, if not better, with a lot less complications. So braces, a good back brace that's flexible and moves dynamically with the patient, allowing them to use it Intermittently, as they needed for some support. Also, therapy changing lifestyle are you sitting all day sitting, bobby, standing?

Dr. Scott Fried: 17:50

So we begin to educate people and then we look at far eastern Medicine, the way medicine really was practiced. And if you read most of the greats, and, and Andrew Wilde is on a great job of bringing actually education and his own university To basing on this holistic theory and and and you know, but if you read any of the greats, it all comes back to eastern medicine puts the body in a good shape and position Marc you mentioned acupuncture is many alternatives massage, reflexology, as well as standard therapies and medications and meditation, and then, if nothing else is working, we move on to medications and medicines and then you know, trying to avoid pain medicines which we can take less by meditating and using that to enhance that. So I think the shift here and the way I see things is, yeah, the change in the system and the way things are going. We are able to now teach people to trust themselves a little more, because they're going to have to yeah, I was just gonna say I think that that is so important.

Ang Onorato: 19:08

As you refer to is the external body, and I think in psychotherapy, for example, it's been the same for decades it's designed to keep people coming back weekly to see a therapist versus teaching them how to maybe self heal their inner world as well. So I love your perspective and then obviously it's so important to just integrate because we are whole beings, right, we're not internal and external. So Great, great insights. Sorry, Marc, please go with your.

Marc Bernstein: 19:33

Okay, I just listening to you, scott. I was thinking about. It's kind of like with a lot of things in life. It's almost like we got to smart, like society got to smart, like modern medicine got to smart and there's all these great ways we can fix things, like you said, versus listening to our bodies, listening to nature, cooperating with nature, cooperating with the mind body connection, and you know, it's sort of back to basics right in the way yeah, we've gotten technically efficient, but emotionally we're infant and and, and you know, one of the things that happened years ago is I had an injury, personal injury.

Dr. Scott Fried: 20:13

We had the family up and my wife arranged this is she does everything in my life and Take care of me and then and our business and every, every aspect of my world and makes my ideas Work and she has many better ideas too. But but we were on a family ski vacation and I blew out my shoulder and I didn't ski, so it was clear that I certainly shouldn't have been snowboarding. But our son talked me into that and and we did, and I knew better as a surgeon that everybody who snowboards eventually falls. So, anyway, I could not find one device to give me comfort that didn't feel like it strangulated me, and so that led to our path of our other business doctor in the house, where we began, I began making braces.

Dr. Scott Fried: 21:10

I put myself in my fanny pack that I had on hand and I cut my straps off my ski pants to get I never use them again and strap myself in, and that became our shoulder device, which is a arm sling With no next straps. And then we went on from there and I realized that, wow, braces really do help people better than surgery and better than many of these other things. So I think again we come back to your theme of change. What's the change? You know, we all have to be stimulated a little bit I was overstimulated there but To impose change and import that and I could bring that to the medical world.

Marc Bernstein: 21:55

I'm, by the way you. I'm gonna shift direction a little bit, because you mentioned your wife, and I promised you I was going to bring her up, and that first. First specific reason, though, which is that you also mentioned that in our pre interview that you what are the most inefficient people you know? But I would argue, and the way you're very efficient because what you do is you've done something. You know, I'm a student of the strategic coach, dan selvin.

Marc Bernstein: 22:23

I talked about this in the show before, and one of the things he talks about is focusing on your unique abilities and getting rid of everything else, and you are one of the best examples I know of that, and we talked about how lucky you are to have lauren. I know how much it does for you in your life, but everybody has somebody like that if if they're thinking about being efficient. So, in a way, you are Very and very efficient because you're freed up to be. A lot of your work I know is is creative work. You know it's like coming up with new ideas and thoughts and and materials for people to listen to and to read into. You know so, so I wanted to point that out. Do you have any comment on that, that how you focused on your unique ability.

Dr. Scott Fried: 23:06

Yeah, I am, other than the fact that I'm now clearly in trouble, but I'm glad I'm gonna help you with that.

Dr. Scott Fried: 23:16

Yeah, my wife lauren is a is she. She guides my life, she runs my life. I often say and it's true, I married her shoes, the only one who actually told me what I didn't want to hear and I told me the truth about myself. And she's my greatest champion and she's my greatest critic. And but I also learned that she is an extraordinarily capable person and I I openly admit my wife runs my life, she organizes things, she organizes our family, I'm. She makes things work and it's a great, great thing. But she also in braces. The my friend years ago tell me that the problem with my wife and me was we were co dependent. And I told him that was the nicest thing you ever said to me.

Marc Bernstein: 24:13

And it wasn't the problem, it was the solution it was the solution.

Dr. Scott Fried: 24:17

Exactly right, it was the solution she basically is. It balances me very well and If you believe in karma, which I do, I mean people are brought together and brought together for reasons, and she came to my life to make me capable and she's done a wonderful job with that.

Ang Onorato: 24:38

Well, it's not like she's done more than keep you productive, because I'm sorry, I know we're running kind of little short time. I just want to mention that you have offered a number of books as well, so maybe tell us a little bit about that, because it, you know, it sounds like it's a way for you to get your message out there, and maybe the help of your wife has helped you. Focus on that. Bring out that creativity.

Dr. Scott Fried: 24:59

Yes, yes, I, even though she told me initially I couldn't write, and she was correct. I have to have a lot of help writing my books. But yeah, my original books were on carpool tunnel and and and nerve pain and nerve injury and Injuries to the upper arm and be in the neck and shoulder area, and I'm in your book, if I remember, light at the end of the carpool tunnel, or I think so.

Marc Bernstein: 25:27

Very good memory Marc. Yes, I was my first.

Dr. Scott Fried: 25:30

Yeah and I was lucky enough to have a doctor, bernie seagull, a world healer. Embrace this with me and become a great friend and help me write that book. And I went on from there to moving into a lot of other healing books on a surgeon, self hypnosis, healing solution, talking about using meditation and relaxation For surgery and healing, and my latest book, the alternative, basically offering something to help people utilize medications and drugs in a better way and in a safer way and, if they were using them more than they wanted to, even decreasing the amount and enhancing that I using meditation, not taking use of both together off the table if you had one of your books that you would recommend that are listeners read first, which would that be?

Dr. Scott Fried: 26:32

I'd say the one that seems to resonate with the world right now Would probably be a surgeon, self hypnosis healing solution, my father's secret, and it's basically my father's story and the story of how I came to be where I am and learn how we can take better care of ourselves by the way, I'm glad you said that one.

Marc Bernstein: 26:58

I want to read that one myself because as much as I knew a lot of your story, I didn't know that story and that's fascinating to me and I would be privileged to get you a copy. Only if it, only if it's signed. Scott, you know what we'll make. We'll make a trade. I'll do that and I'll get your album. That'll be perfect. And my book. I'll get you my book.

Dr. Scott Fried: 27:19

Yes, and your book as well. More gift.

Marc Bernstein: 27:21

You have the multi talents. What is, what is? We're just about to close, so we'd like to end with a fun question. So I know you're a voracious learner. What is your favorite material to read?

Dr. Scott Fried: 27:33

Oh well, to my west consternation, I don't read novels as much. I love self-help books, self surprising, right to anywhere from Wayne Dyer or Rambas. Bernie Siegel's got wonderful series of books. There were so many Wonderful books. Another book that's on another realm. There is the active side of infinity by Carlos Castanada, very interesting book that will make you think very differently about shaman, healing and and and many of the the old time or before Eastern as and you were pointing out the philosophies and healing and you came up with that because that's Perfect book for me right now because I'm thinking about all that shaman Treatments and things like that.

Marc Bernstein: 28:29

So I that would be a great introduction to that. I think so. Thank you.

Ang Onorato: 28:33

I just put that on my list as well. That's I just did a Temescal earlier this year, which was a new thing for me. The big sweat lodge and the jungles in Mexico and the shamans are a real deal for sure.

Dr. Scott Fried: 28:46

Absolutely, absolutely. You know I always laugh, I'll end on this that I have so many psychologists in my life who are obviously from my father on, who are friends and dear friends and and people who just I. I was very involved in the Hypnosis society for a long while and so came to know many, many great people in this realm and I I realized that the world needs more psychologists. It's hard to find people doing that and I think, angie's, you pointed out, learning to do therapy more efficiently has become something that is. That is it and again, giving people more empowerment, teaching them the path and then helping them move on. That.

Marc Bernstein: 29:35

I think we're out of time. I just want to mention that many years ago, when I started as an attorney For a friend of mine, I started the National Society of Hypnotherapists and was the general counsel to that organization. So early on, I went to some of those meetings and absorbed a lot of information, did a lot of self-hypnosis, etc. So this is why you and I need to get together more often, because we have a lot to talk about. So Meditate, that's right, I would. That would be great, actually. So listen, I'm great to have you here, scott. I'm really glad, and I'm sure we could do another show in the future If you'd like, because there's lots more to talk about.

Dr. Scott Fried: 30:14

Thank you. I appreciate being with both of you and really enjoyed the company and the time together.

Marc Bernstein: 30:21

And thank you to our listeners for being here today with us on Founders Forum. We'll see you next week.

Announcer: 30:29

We hope you're.